The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

The 3D printing market is maturing rapidly, as attention and influence shifts from the companies that manufacture these amazing devices to a broad range of industries where the technology is finding distribution and practical applications. That’s one key finding from the new Appinions Industry Influence Study, released today. The report lists the ‘Ten Most Influential Companies’ including Autodesk (ADSK), Amazon (AMZN), Home Depot (HD), GE (GE), and Makerbot (recently acquired by Stratasys), as well as the ‘Ten Most Influential Executives’ in the 3D printing market.

The momentum that 3D printing is enjoying is highlighted by the diversity of industries that earned spots in the report, which includes firms and executives from retail, traditional manufacturing, automotive, aviation, finance, construction, and electronics. Pure-play 3D startups like Formlabs, CreoPop, Shapeways, and Sculpteo remain an active part of the conversation as well.

3D Printing Most Influential Companies

Retail made a particularly strong showing, led by Amazon’s recent introduction of a 3D printed items marketplace, which propelled the retailer to the #2 spot among companies. Amazon’s Marketplace Sales Director Petra Schindler-Carter ranked as the #1 most influential executive. Staples SVP Damien Leigh ranked as the #2 executive for his role in brining ‘3D print on demand’ to their stores.

3D Printing Industries

The new report is based on analysis of over 100 million news and blog articles as well as social media posts made between early May and late August. From this pool, Appinions identified over 25,000 opinions and reactions, and applied a proprietary scoring algorithm to generate influence scores. The scores take into account the history of the opinion holder, the location where the opinion or reaction was shared, and the volume of reactions a single opinion generates.

“It’s impressive to see the diversity of players that are putting their weight behind 3D printing,” said Larry Levy, Founder and CEO of Appinions. “This is still new technology and a young market, but with such diverse leaders already willing to accept 3D into their businesses, we expect only dramatic acceleration and further adoption for the next 12 months.”

The Appinions 3D Printing Influence Study is available as a free download here.